


My love and me as we sing this early morning singing song

by HashtagTheyFucked



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hair (the musical), Pre-Canon, Singing, baby Sabrina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2019-12-25 08:32:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18257609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HashtagTheyFucked/pseuds/HashtagTheyFucked
Summary: I have this saved as “everyone is sad and sabrina is teeny tiny” and I think that pretty much sums it up.





	My love and me as we sing this early morning singing song

**Author's Note:**

> Technically I think this might be what one calls a song-fic?
> 
> I just, um, really like Hair and I’ve been listening to the actors benefit concert all day.
> 
> All mistakes are mine and mine alone bc I’m impatient lol.

The days after Edward’s death are hard. Zelda barely talks, Hilda is constantly crying, and Ambrose takes to alcohol and food in excess. The new baby, Edward’s daughter, doesn’t see a real smile in her new home for at least a fortnight. When the smiles do start to emerge from the depths of grief they are still tinged with a sad sort of wistfulness.  It makes her fussy. Even when Sabrina is being held and shushed, she wriggles and screams, her tiny limbs flailing. 

 

Zelda once catches a tiny baby-sharp nail to her face, leaving a red little scratch near the corner of her eye right where Edward had once hit her with a porcelain doll, shattering it. It was some nursery squabble, Zelda doesn’t even remember why Edward had been mad, but for some reason, when Sabrina’s sharp little claw of a hand struck her, that day with her unruly little brother rushed into her brain. She felt tears begin to well up in her eyes, and she tried to swallow around the lump in her throat. 

 

She thrust the fussing babe into Hilda’s arms and rushed out of the parlor, trying to hold back tears until she could lock herself away and have a good long cry. 

  
  


— — —

  
  


Hilda is patient with the baby, can usually handle her squirming and shrieking, but when Sabrina well and truly starts to cry, Hilda falls apart. Ambrose had once walked into the kitchen, mid morning and slightly hungover, to see Hilda on the floor in front of the island cradling Sabrina and rocking back and forth, the both of them crying. Sabrina’s wailing sobs were louder than Hilda’s, but Hilda’s cheeks were wetter and the anguish on her face more heartbreaking.

 

Ambrose kneels down next to her, puts a hand on her shoulder and starts rubbing soothing circles on Hilda’s back. He feels every shuddering sob as it wracks through Hilda’s body. 

 

“Here, auntie, let me,” he says softly, and he gently scoops Sabrina out of Hilda’s arms.

 

Hilda brings her knees up to her chest and continues to sob. 

 

Ambrose sighs and adjusts his flailing cousin in his arms. Zelda is nowhere to be seen and her newspaper lies untouched on the kitchen table, which means she’s probably still in bed and will be there most of the day. She might emerge, makeup free and in her dressing gown, to pick at her dinner, but until then,

 

“It looks like it's just you and me, cous.”

 

Ambrose grabs a bottle of formula from the fridge for Sabrina, some toast and orange juice for himself. He levitates these provisions ahead of him as he tries not to drop the squealing squirming little girl in his arms. He’ll retreat to his room with her, see if any of his records will soothe her. 

  
  


—- —- —-

  
  


One afternoon, when Zelda is wallowing in bed, Hilda and Ambrose go up to his attic room with Sabrina to drink a little, cry a little, and listen to old records that remind them of Edward. They’re poking the wounds in their hearts by indulging their nostalgia, but it’s beginning to feel more like a particularly nasty bruise, rather than an open bullet hole. 

 

Sabrina, of course, is fussing and they pass her back and forth, intermittently reminiscing and falling quiet to listen to the music and get lost in their own thoughts. 

 

They’re both sitting quietly, listening to the sounds of flower children turned broadway, when it happens. 

 

Sabrina quiets in Hilda’s arms. She stops kicking her little legs, and her head turns a bit towards the record player. 

 

Hilda and Ambrose wait for the next shriek, which is surely not far off. This is merely one of many eyes in the storm that is Sabrina Spellman. 

 

They are both looking down at her with baited breath when her legs kick out again, her little fists flail, and she gives a tiny little gurgling baby laugh. Hilda and Ambrose look at each other in shock and then back down to Sabrina, as if to make sure it really was a happy noise, rather than just baby indigestion. Sabrina looks up at both of them and gives a toothless smile before laughing again. 

 

Neither of them speak, nobody makes any noise, except Sabrina, who continues her adorable giggling and happy nonsense noises. For the first time, the baby is graced with two wide, genuine smiles directed at her. 

 

The song ends, transitions to the next and Sabrina’s tiny brow furrows. 

 

“Quick, Ambrose, play it again,”

 

And Ambrose hurries to comply. Sabrina has just taken a deep breath, ready to scream her lungs out, when the song starts over. She lets the breath out in a wet gurgling raspberry and Hilda even chuckles. 

  
  
  
  


It goes on like that until dinner time. Both Ambrose and Hilda know every word, every note, every chord of the song by the time they make their way downstairs. 

 

Ambrose walks into the kitchen, gently bouncing Sabrina in time to the nonsense words of the chorus he is murmuring and Hilda walks behind him, making silly faces and cooing at Sabrina over his shoulder. 

 

Zelda is hidden behind the afternoon paper, but she flips it down when she realizes the noises that she hears are happy ones. Ambrose smiles at her. 

 

“We’ve discovered the secret, Aunt Zee,” 

 

Zelda raises an eyebrow, but otherwise her face remains the closed off blank canvas it has been since the accident. 

 

“Watch this,” Ambrose says as he hands Sabrina off to Hilda. 

 

They are all quiet for a minute, and Sabrina starts to wiggle in Hilda’s arms. Zelda looks between the baby that is getting more fussy by the second, her sister, and her nephew. 

 

“What exactly am I meant to be watching?”

 

As if in answer to Zelda’s question, Sabrina lets out an ear splitting scream and starts her wailing and flailing again. 

 

Zelda grimaces at the noise, but Hilda and Ambrose look at each other grinning. 

 

“This is it, Zelds,” Hilda says, “Ambrose, go,”

 

Ambrose throws a cheeky wink at Zelda before leaning over Sabrina, one palm gently pushing against a tiny flailing foot to get her attention. He starts to sing. 

 

_ “Good morning starshine _

_ The earth says hello,” _

 

Sabrina pauses at Ambrose’s crooning tenor. Hilda looks up at Zelda with an excited smile. 

 

_ “You twinkle above us, _

_ We twinkle below,” _

 

Zelda gives Hilda a small smile of her own and Hilda motions with her head for Zelda to come join them. Zelda carefully puts her paper down, smooths the satin of her dressing gown on her thighs and then slowly gets up to walk over to the rest of her family. 

 

Hilda knows she’s smiling like a fool, but she can’t help it. This feels like the biggest victory they’ve had in months. 

 

Zelda comes to stand next to Hilda, rests one hand on the small of her sister’s back as she shifts so that their sides are pressed together. They are all standing together in the middle of the kitchen looking down at the miraculously calm baby. Hilda looks up to watch Zelda watching Sabrina and it’s almost as if a layer of grey depression has been wiped off her face. She’s always pretty, but with the soft, affectionate smile spreading over her face, the thought strikes Hilda particularly hard. 

 

Zelda’s hand that isn’t touching Hilda, goes towards the smiling (for once) baby and when she brushes over the miniature lifeline on her baby soft palm, Sabrina’s tiny fist closes around Zelda’s index finger. Sabrina looks right at Zelda and gives her a gummy smile that melts her heart. She feels the telltale prick of tears in her eyes, but for the first time in what seems like forever, they are tears brought on by pure joy and wonder at the fragile little witchling in their care. Zelda's hand on Hilda’s back slides around to hug her waist and she rests her head on Hilda’s shorter shoulder. 

 

For the first time since before Edward’s death, all of the Spellmans are smiling. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Any cast recording or cover of “good morning starshine” is a perfect song for a fussy baby Sabrina. 
> 
> You can’t change my mind.


End file.
